In the wake of an intense earthquake of 5.9 magnitude hitting northwest Turkey on 23 November 2022, a video is being shared on social media claiming it as the devastating visuals of a road accident that occurred during the earthquake in the Duzce Province of Turkey. The video shows the collision of several cars on a highway. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Visuals of a road accident caused by the recent earthquake in northwest Turkey.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows the visuals of a traffic accident involving 12 vehicles at the Mecidiyeköy location in the Sisli district of Istanbul, Turkey. The incident took place at 1:20 am on 23 November 2022, on the D-100 highway in Mecidiyeköy. But, the earthquake of magnitude 5.9 shook the Duzce Province at 4:08 am on the same day. The accident shown in the video took place three hours prior to the earthquake that took place in the Duzce Province of northwest Turkey. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video, similar visuals are found in a video published by the ‘Ihlas News Agency’ on 23 November 2022. This news channel reported it as the visuals of a traffic accident that took place on the E-5 Highway (a sub-section of the international D-100 highway) in the Mecidiyekoy section of the Sisli district in Istanbul, Turkey.
Reporting the details of the accident, several news websites published articles on 23 November 2022. They can be seen here, here and here. As per these reports, a driver moving rapidly in the direction of Ankara in the Mecidiyeköy location, crashed into a commercial taxi, causing a chain accident at 1:20 am on 23 November 2022. A total of 8 people, including a baby, were reportedly injured in this chain traffic accident.
On 23 November 2022, an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 hit the Duzce Province of northwest Turkey. Several buildings were found damaged and at least 50 people were reportedly injured during the earthquake. Turkey Police Service in a tweet confirmed that an earthquake of 5.9 magnitude hit the Duzce Province at 4:08 am on 23 November 2022. This indicates that the chain traffic accident shown in the post took place around three hours before the earthquake hit the Duzce Province.
To sum it up, the chain traffic accident shown in this video took place three hours before the earthquake in the Duzce Province of Turkey.
